|
ST. LOUIS – There was some talk over the weekend that the University of Missouri and the St. Louis Rams both received a confidence boost to fuel their respective upsets from the Cardinals winning the World Series on Friday night.
MICDS can be added to that list after the Rams gained some motivation from Friday night’s World Series win to take down defending Class 3 state champion Ladue at the District 2 cross country meet Saturday at Jefferson Barracks Park. Led by individual champion Amos Bartelsmeyer, the Rams edged out Ladue for the district crown, 47 to 48.
 Senior Chris Noda said the team has bonded this season like never before, and that closeness helped set the Rams up for victory.
“Knowing we beat the state champions, that we respect a lot, is huge,” Noda said. “For the past month we’ve been hanging out every Friday night as a team at pasta dinners and talking about our goals and getting ready for the race the next day. We all watched the World Series game last night together, which was huge mentality booster.
“We’ve been such a close-packed team, that training over the summer that we all did together, we’ve grown as humans, as well as friends, as well as runners, and all of it came together today.”
Bartelsmeyer was locked in a duel with John Burroughs’ Kirk Smith over the last half of the race. He turned on his kick over the final few hundred meters to pass Smith and secure the victory in 16:57.
MICDS sophomore Peter Condie finished in fifth (17:34) sandwiched between three Ladue runners. Noda took 10th (17:42), and sophomore Josh Zoeller was 13th (17:52). Senior Steven Frank had the last scoring spot at 21st (18:29), one place behind Ladue’s fifth runner.
Noda was racing for the first time in three weeks after being sidelined with bronchitis. While he still wasn’t 100 percent, he was able to contribute enough to get his team the victory.
“This is the second year in a row I got sick three weeks before state,” Noda said. “Last year I had mono, and this year I got bronchitis. This year I was keeping up with Amos a little bit, but he’s a monster.
“I missed two weeks. It was pretty rough mentally, a lot of defeatist attitude going on, but really because my team was so supportive of it, and they told me yesterday, ‘You do your best. You do what you always do; we have no expectations. You do what you have to do.’ And today being part of the chase pack was what I could do my best at. Hopefully one more week we can all get healthy, all stay positive, and do our damage at state.”
Noda admitted the team had tried to stay under the radar for most the season and th e Rams wanted to surprise people. Now that they are district champs, the Rams won’t be sneaking up on anyone at the Class 3 state meet Saturday on the Oak Hills Golf Center course in Jefferson City.
The Rams are young this season. There are three sophomores on the varsity seven. That puts pressure on the upperclassmen to help their teammates adjust to a meet of this caliber and with one of the largest fields the team has seen all season.
“What happens at the state meet is a completely different meet,” Noda said. “The only meet that we’ve run this year that could be comparable is Forest Park, so we have to call back and remember how we raced that day when there were Class 4 teams and an incredible amount of people throughout the entire race.
“At the state meet, if you really want to be excellent, you have to all be together and all be close to the top. We have to spread, ‘Do what you’ve always been doing, but realize it’s a completely different feeling at the two-mile when there are six other guys with you all going for the state title.’”
Even Bartelsmeyer is a novice when it comes to the state meet. This is his first high school cross country season after switching over from soccer following a monster track season last spring. Bartelsmeyer still has some early ideas of what to expect in Jeff City.
“It’s going to be the fastest, toughest race all year, I know that for sure,” Bartelsmeyer said Saturday. “I’ve watched some videos and the video where they go all over the state course. We’ll run it the day before, and we’ll think about planning how I’m going to race.
“I’ve been pretty good about getting strong starts. After the start, that 800 there, I have to maintain that strong start so I can keep going throughout the race. That’s really my biggest area I need to focus on – that second 800 to mile.”
With a front-runner like Bartelsmeyer, and a team full of young, confident Rams, MICDS is hoping to make it a happy bus ride home this weekend.
|
